Using Filters in Google Analytics

If you use Google Analytics to monitor traffic to your website, it might be wise to exclude visits to the site by yourself and other site developers. You can do this easily, by adding a filter, so that certain IP addresses or domain names are not included in the metrics.

Log in to Google Analytics and select the site you want to add the filter to. Click Edit, toward the right side of the screen (see below, click to enlarge).



Go to the section Filters applied to profile and select +Add Filter (see below, click to enlarge).



This will take you to the filter dialogue box. Choose whether you want to exclude traffic from a domain, an IP address, or traffic to certain subdirectories, and then enter the domain, address, or subdirectory. In the example below we've used an IP address. Click Save Changes and you are done (see below, click to enlarge).



You can use the site What is My IP Address (http://whatismyipaddress.com/) to find your IP address.

To see a Connect tutorial on setting up Google Analytics for your site, go to the Connect tutorial page on Google Analytics (http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p28806841/)

Online Dreamweaver and Photoshop Tutorials

Adobe has thousands of video tutorials up at Adobe TV (http://tv.adobe.com/channel/how-to/), in easy to digest five minute segments.

These tutorials cover the latest versions (e.g. CS4, in most cases) of all the products Adobe offers: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Premeire, and lots more. Experience levels range from beginner to advanced. They are well thought out, and well produced.

Embedded below is a tutorial pulled from their site on defining a site on Dreamweaver CS4, the first step in working with any site in Dreamweaver.



Thanks to Darrin Goodman for the tip!

Microcontent

People read books. They scan websites.

Keep this in mind when adding content to your own website, particularly your home page. Use short sentences, short paragraphs. Develop a clean, clear, simple writing style. Write like Hemmingway.

An excellent strategy to draw people into your site is use micocontent. Microcontent refers to small bits bits of text, formatted so they can be easily scanned.

Example include...

Headlines:

Links:

Lists:

Buttons (image links):

Boxes:

Blockquotes: